Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării

Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

Examenul de bacalaureat 2009

Proba E/F
Proba scrisă la Limba engleză
L1 - Bilingv

• Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii. Se acordă 10 puncte din oficiu.

• Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.

SUBIECTUL I (30 de puncte) Varianta 074

Read the text below and complete the following tasks.

With sinking heart, I stared at Saturday’s Times. (1) … Almost the whole of the front page
was devoted to a single story. ‘Tears as horrific case is outlined - murder jury told of discoveries
‘more terrible than words can express’. If only. (2) … But having expressed ourselves too shocked
to speak, we speak. Having judged a scene indescribable, we go on to try to describe it. Having
found a case too dreadful to talk about, we talk about it. On and on.
And, glancing at that front page, I should like to claim that my sinking heart was sinking
under the weight of dismay at the emerging facts about the murders. But it wouldn’t be true. The
murders are awful beyond comprehension, and that’s that. No, the heart sank for a more selfish
reason. (3) … It sank because Saturday’s Times was signalling the imminence of weeks - perhaps
months - of newspaper, magazine, television and radio news which will be of little interest to me.
From now on and for a long time to come, whole reams of my own and every other newspaper will
be, from this reader’s point of view, a blank. You see, I really don’t want to read about it. I can’t
summon up much interest in the details, I simply skip.
What sort of research is conducted, I wonder, into the influence of particular stories over
customer decisions to purchase a newspaper? It is doubtful whether asking customers would be
the way to learn. As any editor will tell you, people are prone to declare their disgust that a
newspaper should give prominence to a story, and then eagerly buy it. (4) … In human nature, the
propensity to be shocked at published or broadcast material, judging it offensive, undignified or
harmful, is quite close to the propensity to be drawn towards it. I often suspect that the natural
censors among us are driven by an unacknowledged fear of the ruder, more violent or perverted
sides of their own natures. When it comes to the privacy of the newsagent’s, a circulation manager
can put them in the same category as the openly prurient: they buy, they read, they relish. Then
they complain.

1. Four sentences have been removed from the text. Select the appropriate sentence for
each gap in the text. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. 4 points

A. Our readers are likely to devour the story - the one blithely, the other guiltily, both avidly.
B. Editors, please remember us!
C. It was no different from any of the other papers, broadsheet or tabloid.
D. If only we really would accept that there are things more terrible than words can express. If
only the words would ever cease.
E. It sank because I was bored.

2. Give antonyms for the following words. 6 points

1. dreadful
2. selfish
3. to purchase

3. Sum up the text in about 50 words. 10 points

 Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării
Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

4. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits according to the
text. 6 points

1. What is the writer’s main subject in the first paragraph?

A. The language newspapers use when covering horrific court cases.
B. The human habit of talking about horrific things.
C. The impossibility of finding the right words in some circumstances.
D. The shocking crimes that human beings commit.

2. What does the writer emphasize in the second paragraph?

A. How much this particular case differs from others.
B. That this particular case has changed his attitude.
C. That media coverage of such cases is of low quality.
D. How sincere his reaction to this particular case is.

3. Why is it wrong to ask readers why they buy a certain newspaper?

A. Their actions contradict their stated opinions.
B. They find it hard to explain the appeal of a certain newspaper.
C. They keep changing their minds about what a newspaper should cover.
D. The analysis of such research is often inaccurate.

5. Comment on the following in about 100 words: In human nature, the propensity to be
shocked at published or broadcast material, judging it offensive, undignified or harmful, is quite
close to the propensity to be drawn towards it. 4 points